GRAND RAPIDS, MI — A 21-year-old Cascade Township man died this weekend from internal bleeding caused by blunt force trauma to the abdomen after being involved in a brawl outside The B.O.B. in Grand Rapids, police said.

Gregory William Barker, 21, died Saturday morning, Oct. 12, at Spectrum Health Butterworth Hospital several hours after a large fight in the parking lot north of The B.O.B. entertainment complex at 20 Monroe Ave. NW.

Sgt. James Potter, a detective with the Grand Rapids Major Case Team, said Barker was part of a group of people from the Ada-Cascade area barhopping downtown who got into a verbal altercation with a group from the Norton Shores-Muskegon area.

Officers were called to The B.O.B. about 1:10 a.m. early Saturday morning on reports of a fight in progress.

The scene had cleared by the time police arrived, but witnesses located later said the verbal argument resulted in punches being thrown, a short chase and a “pile” of people in the parking lot next to 50 Monroe Ave. NW that B.O.B. security helped break-up.

About 9:30 a.m. Saturday, Kent County Sheriff’s deputies were called to Barker’s parents' house on a medical call. Barker was rushed to the hospital with injuries related to the fight, but died shortly after arrival, Potter said.

It’s not clear what started the fight, he said.

Barker’s group was coming out of The B.O.B. while the group from the Muskegon area was arriving on a party bus, Potter said. Both groups had been barhopping and were drinking at other establishments prior, he said.

In an email Sunday morning, B.O.B. owner Greg Gilmore pointed blame toward people coming off the party bus and said "the only reason our security got involved is that they were concerned that someone was going to get hurt.”

Potter confirmed Gilmore’s assertion that security denied some of the Muskegon group entry into The B.O.B., but said that some did go inside. The ones who went inside were not involved in the fight, he said.

He estimated between 5 and 10 total people were involved from both groups. He’s unsure how many blows Barker sustained during the incident. No weapons were involved.

Police are still investigating the incident. No arrests have yet been made. Anyone with information is asked to call police at 616-456-3604, or Silent Observer at 616-774-2345.